Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
But I have a bad feeling about that already. And something fresh is on my mind. “This monster…it’ll start here, right, if it’s breaking free from—what did you call it? The Rift?”
“The Guides call the places they escape from gates—like open doorways from the Rift into our world.”
“And it’ll be hungry,” I add, “so it’ll need a victim right away.” I pull my phone out of my pants and key away.
“What are you doing?” Seth asks.
“Will you shut the fuck up for five seconds so I can think?” I search “missing” + “Lawrenceville, GA” + “news.” Sure enough, an article from yesterday pops up, with a face I recognize. “George Farrow hasn’t been seen since Monday, October twenty-first. Fuck,” I mutter, handing my phone to Brad. “That’s who I saw. That’s who I was chasing. This thing is already out, so clearly, my leaving isn’t gonna do shit.”
“Then something’s changed since my last vision,” Cody says. “Something’s happened that’s affected the outcome.”
“Or you read it wrong,” I insist.
“It’s possible,” Cody says. “We’ve just never had this happen before.”
“You’ve really fucked with everything since you got here,” Seth adds.
“So whatever the hell this thing is,” I say, ignoring Seth, “we know it’s out there and hunting people. I know with everything in me that it killed that guy. You have no idea how much it needs to kill. I could feel its hunger, and it was so intense both times I saw it attack. It’s like it’s not even just feeding off their bodies, but—and this sounds so fucked—feeding on their fear of it.”
“Their fear?” Cody asks.
“Yes, it’s like I was feeling satisfied even before eating them. Fuck, I don’t even know how I know that.”
Brad says, “You remember when I made that comment about it being like a dream where you just know certain things? You felt it about the guy it killed and about the place it came from, but you don’t have the other part that’s connected to you. We know you’re the reason this is all happening.”
“And I’m just supposed to trust that?”
Brad holds his hands up like he wants me to calm the hell down for a minute, but he didn’t have to see what I just saw.
I feel like a fucking monster myself.
“I’m not saying you guys are making this up, but you can understand why you bringing me here, telling me I’m gonna see one thing, then seeing something totally different, would make me suspect you have no idea what the hell you’re seeing.”
“That’s fine,” Brad says. “We all need to be skeptical, but it doesn’t have to turn into a fight about everything.”
I take a breath. He’s right. “Sorry, this stuff is fucking with my head.”
“It’s okay,” Cody says. “It’s a lot. But it clearly doesn’t knock you down the way it does me, which is a good sign.”
“Good sign? Did you hear what I said? There’s a monster on the loose and already killing people…and apparently will kill more people. We have to do something.”
“No, no,” Seth says. “Me, Cody, and Brad have to do something. You aren’t a part of this.”
“Seth…” Brad says. “You’re not being honest there.”
Seth’s jaw clenches. “Don’t do this. Don’t you dare fucking do this now.”
Brad gives Seth a stern look; a warning. “It’s time to tell him. He needs to know.”
“I need to know what?”
“We all agreed to this!” Seth insists.
“Brad’s right,” Cody says. “It’s too late to stop whatever’s coming. And maybe Luke could help us. I mean, you can feel the power radiating off him.”
“Powerful, but a loose cannon,” Seth reminds them. “All this shit he’s been doing to our powers and with the powers he has that he doesn’t understand might even be the reason why this thing is out already.”
“That might be true,” Cody says, “but it’s irrelevant at the moment. We need to move forward with these new insights.”
I agree with Cody and am fast becoming beyond exasperated with Seth. “I get it, Seth. You don’t like me. I don’t like you. Now whatever the fuck secrets you guys are keeping, you need to be out with them because I’m getting tired of this crap.”
Cody nods. “Seth, would you grab the book?”
Seth doesn’t look happy about it, but he heads back to the stairs and grabs Cody’s backpack, retrieving an old leather-bound book. He eyes me as he returns to his friend and passes it to him.
“When I first came to St. Lawrence,” Cody says, “I stumbled upon this place. I was having a lot of depressive episodes and anxiety. I found when I came here that they eased up. One day, I felt this impulse to head toward the floorboards over in the corner there. It intensified the closer I got, this powerful urge to shift the boards around until I discovered this. Like it was calling me to it.” He flips to the first page and passes it to me.